new starts

The year 2014 turned to Februari already :

time flies

Time to make some new starts !

1

Finally I know what to do with the "fiery" wool present 

I got from Anne (Australia)

I will be knitting a lacy shawl called

Dragonfly Wings

f i r e

(fire shining on my hand  ;-)  !) 

2

The second start is my fabulous online Surface Design Felting class with 

Fiona Dutie

This weekend I received the first lesson

with five assignments

So I better get started soon !

(nothing to show yet ...)

3

This month starts a new felting exchange

There is a new group of people

but the rules are the same :

every month a little post card size piece of felt 

for one of the participants

on a chosen theme

(my first one will be "faces")

So ... not much to show yet,

just promeses

!!!

I hope we make another new start too :

our computer is old and

v e r y

s .. l .. o .. w  

(and plays nasty tricks every now and then)

some more black and white

As I showed some days ago

I immediately started stitching

on another black and white piece of felt.

This felt is not as even as the first piece,

because of the extra black pre-felt circles

I laid on top of the white wool tops.

(but that hasn't any influence on the stitching)

I didn't put any white pre-felt on the black wool :

the black fibres would migrate up through the white !

I now have a new tool for the patterns on the wool :

a pen with  white  acrylic ink.

It works very good 

it is just visible and it rubs off easily.

For the white parts I still use the paper templates.

The name :

"Wheels of time"

stitching on black and white

Almost a year ago 

a dear Stitch'nBitch friend from Rotterdam

asked me about the black-and-white felting

I did for the felting-exchange back then.

I kind of got a commission to make a bigger piece

just like those (which were post card size)

All this time

that commission was somewhere in the back of my mind,

but I never came to work out my ideas for it.

Untill this week ! 

I made five little sketches (no bigger than 4 cm)

chose one and started to lay out the merino wool tops

some viscose strips for the nuno parts.

White I had enough, but the black and gray were my last bits.

I ended up with the desired square of 30 x 30 cm.

When it was completely dry I started stitching

with black cotton and white silk thread.

(I used paper templates to keep my circles steady)

This is the finished piece

and I named it

 "Moon, where are you ?"

Well, here she is ..... !

My dear friend liked it and it will get a place on the wall 

in her new house

;-)

It's well known that : one thing leads to another,

that's true for felting as well 

So I made the next square and started stitching on that one.

the bigger piece (14 - 1 - 14)

I promised to tell about the bigger piece that I made

after starting the year with smaller work.

When the green collar was finally finished

(after all the setback)

I wanted to start another collar/shawl.

With the green collar I tried several things in this one piece :

like inclusions, nuno and different threads on the surface.

Now I just took some pieces of needle felt

that I bought at Hawar's (móre than a year ago)

There I bought a bit of red, magenta, pink and orange.

I wasn't satisfied with the pattern of the green collar either.

Felt can be rather "stiff".

It doesn't have the "flow" (flexibility)

some other fabrics have.

That's not a problem ...

as long as you deal with that caracteristic feature.

That's why I wanted to shape the collar

around a torso-like pattern.

I wanted two layers,

I wanted leaves,

I wanted points.

Two layers, and rolling wet felt means : shifting

and thát, I didn't want.

So I had to do a lot of sewing together with a running stitch.

Leaves, layers, everything !

A LOT of preparations, but it paid off at the end.

... and where would we be without the magical bubble wrap ...

Un-picking the linen threads was a lot of work too

.....

but finally

......

was  this  the reward  !

;-)

small things

Januari started with making small things

áfter some time of doing nothing at all.

(that always happens after some frenzied time

like working for the christmas fair)

I made new roses 

Ha, the white rose I had on the fair sold almost immediately

After that 

I took the pattern Daughter made  

for the little pouch for scissors 

she made for her best friend as a christmas present.

I hope you know what you have to do 

when you give scissors (a much appreciated gift)

to a friend ???

You add to the present : a little stone (!) 

so the scissors won't cut up your friendship !

(still have to sew on a snap button for closure)

I embroidered a tiny felted heart

almost finished

And today I made another flower (on commission) 

for the lady who bought a nuno felted shawl on the fair 

for which I couldn't offer a flower in the right colour

to use as a fastening pin

drying and waiting for the finishing touch

But ...

I made something  b i g g e r  too : 

hmmmm ... later !

mistakes to learn from

Sure !

You should learn from your mistakes

 I hope that I will do just that !

Some time ago someone asked me 

why I said that you should put a bit of vinegar 

in the last rinsing water of your felted piece :

I said (like I learned from someone else)

that it was to neutralize

the (eventually) still remaining bits of soap in your felt, because :

soap eats your fibres in the end !

Well ...

you should think I'm aware of this
"soap eating your felt" thing

..... 

Some days ago I planned I would finally finish

some felt piece I started 

on my felting-day with my dear friend Jane

in April, last year !

Why did I take so long to finish it?

I don't know, sometines things go like that :

you don't have time, 

(because there are other things that need to be done)

you're not in the right mood, or

you simply forget all about it

;-)

That's about what happened :

and the piece lay there, started, wet and soaped, 

rolled in bubble wrap and a towel.

There were leaves and little half felted balls

with some "fibre fluff" to attach them to the main part,

there were glass beads inside, and a lot of "nuno"

First I put some extra layers on the back and over the glass beads

The layers were simply too thin, not strong enough.

But, when I wanted to add the leaves and especially the balls :

the wool fibres just broke down !!!

I had to remove some of them, but (pfffft) most leaves remained attached

In the end, when the piece was dry I removed the glass beads

because the top was still not strong enough to keep them safely in

(though I made tiny holes !)

Here is the finished collar

(thoroughly rinsed in vinegar and competely dry now)

some details

(around my neck, for the size)

A lesson well learned :

never ever 

leave a (half) felted piece in soap too long

a surprising start

Sometimes 

a surprise 

can take your breath away

...

this one did !

Today was the first time I went out again 

(with daughter and two kids to Rotterdam)

after almost a month of being housebound

due to my silly stumble down the stairs.

After visiting the first shop,

we walked slowly to our biggest book store

where I had coffee and a bagel

while the others did some more shopping.

Then, when I came home

I found this totally unexpected packet

.....

from 

AUSTRALIA  !

In it was "a belated Christmas present" :

the most gorgeously coloured 

hand deyed yarn 

FIRE  !

I'll be honest :

my heart skipped a beat, and it brought tears to my eyes

What a gorgeous present

from someone that lives literally 

on the other side of the earth !

(Ha, I remember,
 when I was in primary school,
a-a-a-a-ges ago,
our teacher told us, that, 
if we would travel down the earth,
like in an elevator,
right through the hot center, 
we would come up 
(with our feet first) 
in Australia !)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH,  ANNE !!!

(what special and beautiful things can come from Blog-land .....   ;-)  !)